WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 119, 17 February 1928, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM [During tbo absence ou holiday o; “T.D.H.," “Notes at Random.” will lx contributed by “Wi.”l America’s Teapct Dome oil scandal would seem to suggest that civilisation has refined everything about petroleum except its methods. Daughter: “Dad, I want some monefor my trousseau.” Father: “But, my dear child, I didr't even know yoa were engaged.” Daughter: “Good heavens.* Father! Don’t you ever read the papers?” Among prohibition by-products in California must be listed the gr«wth of advertising by innuendo. For instance : In Sacramento, capital cty of the Golden State, a resourceful citerer, in black-face type, informs a melancholy world that he never fails ‘to entertain niy friends in that happy social way that cheers and brings back the joys of other days.” The owner of an adjacent resort concludes a printed discourse on the excellence of his chocolate sundaes with the news that lie also is “the big Sheik in an Oasis for poor camels who suffer from enforced Thirst.” A strenuous competitor assures prospective customers as follows: “I vill nearly break my neck to nlease you.” Still another restaurateur attempts to convey his n.essage by inferming readers that ‘‘my place has a distinctly European flavour.” Another roadhouse specialist appeals to .he high-brow trade. “Liquids of tie finest brands are sold in this place” he announces, with a delicate emplasis on “Liquids.” Another caterer wishes the elect to know that “Quality or something better is mv motto,” and a third believes that “Gentlemen appreciate little attentions.” “A penny given to a child Can tun a sky of grey to gold. Two peinies given make his heart Leap will the'joy of wealth untold.” “Ex” is a sign of divorce is a new fashion it the names of up-to-date ladfes in Paris Mme. Huguette ex-Duflos. is setting the pace. When she separated legally from Raphael Duflos, her enineiit aclor-husband, she kept the married name, “Duflos,” because she als) has attained stage fame with it. Both were stars at the famous old Comedic Francaise, but the wife showed her independence by moving out of the domedie and out of the family home and striking out for herself in tlie theatres of Paris anl in the movies. Fortune has come to her more easily than tc Let busland. The “ex,” 'therefore, she wears with pride. It enables her co retain the name she helped make famous without ter a minute letting the world forget tiat she now is paddling own canoe. ■ New South Wales canplains that in the matter of pork experts to that State we seem to be hogging it. A reader sends tie following:—An Irishman working for a Dutchman asked for an increase of pay. The Dutchman replied: “If you are worth it I will be pleased to give it to you. Now, let us see what you do in a year, Pat. We have 365 days in a year; you sleep eight hours eery day, which makes 1'22 days vou s’eep, taken from 365 days leaves’243 days. Now, you have eight hours’ recreation every day, which makes 122 days, taken from 243 days leaves 121 cay’s. We have 52 Sundays in a rear, which you have off, leaving 69 days. You have 14 days’ vacation; take this off, and vou have 55 days left. You doFt work Saturday afternoons; this males 26 days in a year. Take this off, and you have 29 days left. Now, .“at, you are allowed one and a half lours for meals, which total in a year 18 davs. Take this off, and you have one day left. I always give you St. Patrick’s Day off, so I ask you, Pat, if mu are entitled to a rise?” Tat then answered, “Well, what the devil have I been doing, then?” • » • New Zealand heard a lot some years ago about how cheap hydro-electricity was going to be —on paper. It has been recalled that even more optimistic forecasts were made when gas-lighting first came in. For instance, in 1806 a German named Winsor, described as “a company-promoting expert,” illuminated the front of. Carlton House in London with gas by way of advertisement, and then issued a prospectus for ‘.‘The New Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,” which remains unique even among, its optimistic kind in its forecasts of big profits and quick returns. Once his enterprise was launched it would yield, declared Winsor, a profit of over 220 millions a year, out of which he proposed to redeem the National Debt, promote various schemes for the public welfare, and pay shareholders 1100 per cent. Hydro-elec-tricity never quite reached this stage of optimism. A curious tiling noticed by an Englishman who travelled recently by train from Riga to Moscow was that the menu cards in the restaurant car were printed largely in English. The sampie? quoted are of nice, flavourful Engfish, obviously mined straight out of a French-English dictionary. Thus the beading “Side-dish” appears, a good old-fashioned equivalent of ‘ entree. Still nicer is the legend “Soups Differently,” which, as our correspondent suggests, can “mean only that the translator, when confronted by both words in the dictionary, preferred ‘different’ to ‘various,’ since the soups themselves are all extremely. samely Another pleasantry is “stiff [i.e., stuffed] fish.” “Rolls” and “Schnitzel” are both “by Vienna.” If your tastes turn towards vegetarian dishes you can have an “omelette with thin herbs’ (which, of course, is our old friend “omelette aux fines herbes”) or roasted, broiled, baked, or broached. Our correspondent adds plaintively that “however vou word your request for etrgs, it is perhaps unnecessary, to sav that they always appear either boiled or fried, so that the taste of a broached egg still remains an untried delight. These precepts from a ninety-years old book of etiquette seem almost mythological nowadays:— When alone with him, a lady may address her husband by his Christian name. If either a lady or a gentleman is invited to take wine at . table, they must never refuse; it is very gauche to do so. If a lady waltz with you, beware not to press her waist; lightly touch it with the open palm lest you leave a disagreeable impression not only on her costume but on her mind. Alarried ladies ought to be very careful about shaking hands promiscuously, as it leads to scandal. FROM A TOMBSTONE. As I walked by myself I talked to myself, And thus mvself said to me, Look to thyself and take care of thyself For nobodv cares for thee. So I turned to myself, and I answered myself, In the self-same reverie: I look to myself, or not look to myself, The self-same thing it will be.